Letter from Laura Stein

Dear LCLD Members:

As we approach our eighth anniversary as an organization, I'd like to thank you, the Members of LCLD, for your personal commitment to the mission of our organization—and the all-important process of identifying strong, diverse talent and creating leadership opportunities for that talent.

In support of your efforts, I'm honored to serve as Chair of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. I'll be building upon the accomplishments of my predecessors, LCLD Founding Chair Emeritus Rick Palmore, Wally Martinez of Hunton & Williams, and Microsoft President Brad Smith, who served as Chair for three very eventful years.

Since our founding in 2009, LCLD has grown into an organization of both vision and real-world action, working to produce a future legal profession that is as diverse as the country it serves.

In pursuit of this goal, we've continued to expand our programs to benefit talented individuals at various stages of their professional development. We've also embarked upon an initiative to build the LCLD community in cities across the country, uniting Members, diversity professionals, and program participants in the necessary work of building powerful networks, sparking innovation, and passing along lessons of leadership to the next generation.

In addition to the increasing number of young attorneys and law students of diverse backgrounds whose careers are advanced by LCLD, I am pleased to note that we are also developing sophisticated metrics to gauge that impact and sharing those results with you, our Members.

I thank you for your support, and I look forward to serving as LCLD Chair and continuing to grow the organization and our core values of leadership, action, and results.